Genovis

Comments from Fredrik Olsson, Chief Executive Officer

We started the first quarter of the year with record-breaking sales, making it our single best quarter ever. Revenue increased by 119%, driven by gene therapy license revenue, and at the same time we delivered our best quarter ever for the core business.

Growth in our core business was 41%, where enzymes in analytics grew by 38% and the antibody business by 60%, which is the single best quarter for each segment respectively to date. We mainly saw strong development in both the US and Europe, while Asia was slightly weaker due to sluggish customer activity in China. In general, we see continued robust activity in our business.

During the quarter, we launched a further developed product based on our GlySERIAS enzyme, which continued to show solid sales growth at the beginning of the year. Our product development continues to have good momentum with additional product launches planned during the year. Our collaboration with Selecta Biosciences in gene therapy is following the established development plan and preclinical data will be presented at ASCGT in May. Our sales and marketing team continued to create good activity in our markets, aided by strong support from development and production, as well as application and support.

In April, we acquired the patent rights to a new enzyme for analyzing DNA. This is our first enzyme in genomics with applications in research, diagnostics and forensics. During the year, we will work on developing applications with the enzyme together with partners for future commercialization.

To further strengthen our local presence and commercial capability in China, we have initiated a collaboration with ArcticZymes Technologies. Both companies have unique enzymes with high customer value for the global Life Science industry and together they open up opportunities for a stronger commercial organization and development in the Chinese market.

In the second half of the year, we will move the business to new, specially designed premises that offer improved opportunities for continued growth and scaling up of the business. At the beginning of the year, we started investing in equipment and furnishings, which will continue in the second quarter with the move planned for the third quarter.

I am of course extremely pleased with our performance at the beginning of the year. It is particularly satisfying that all parts of the core business show strong growth and that we have maintained a good gross margin despite increased raw material costs. Much of the increase in the total cost base compared with the previous year is linked to the licensing deal with Astellas, with respect to both incentives and royalty to inventors.

With an outstanding performance, a strong start to the year and good customer activity, I look forward to Genovis' continued growth journey. I would like to thank my colleagues at Genovis who work hard every day to find the optimal solution to the challenges that our customers face.